June 11, 2007

The Peculiar Sci-fi Costumes of Dave T. Smith

I have known Dave Smith ever since we met at school in the third grade.
He was one of my best friends through all the years of high school, and
we remained friends while attending separate universities in Texas -
even backpacking through Europe together one summer. But, we eventually
fell out of touch after I moved away to New York City. Then, almost a
decade after that, we got in touch with one another again. After
discussing where we both lived and worked and what we had been up to all
those years, the highlight of our reunion was when Dave told me he
spent a lot of time constructing gigantic, elaborate costumes that
represented scenes in science fiction films, and that he traveled all
over the country wearing them, competing in front of large crowds at
conventions where he won awards. He told me he had one where his whole
head was the Death Star 2, with space ships all over his shirt coming
at it, called "The Battle of Endor." I told him to please go on. He
then told me about plans to eventually retire the Battle of
Endor costume at a show where he could wear it riding a bike down a
long ramp into a lake, and have the Death Star head burst into flames
while in mid-air, as he detached and escaped into the water. He was
sure it would be a crowd-pleaser. You know, it turns out you really can't imagine what your old childhood friends may be up to after all those years have passed by. Actually...

"The Battle of Endor" detail (click for larger)

Ever since the beginnings of the celebrated masquerades and costume
competitions that naturally spawned out of sci-fi conventions, the
unwritten rule has always been that participants would dress as
specific characters from films, books, comics, games and television
shows. Dave chose instead to stand out by dressing not as the
characters, but as the actual films themselves - in bizarre, complex
contraptions that blurred the line separating the sci-fi fan from what
they might actually be a fan of. Isn't it the secret dream of every Star Wars
fanatic to actually exist INSIDE the movie? I remember that even in
grade school, Dave was an enthusiastic and often very vocal Star Wars buff. Personally, I preferred the less popular Logan's Run.
Dave and I would often spend Texas summers, at the age of eight, riding
our bikes to 7-11 while engaging in heated arguments about which was a
more relevant cinematic work (isn't that what all kids do?) Well Dave,
now that we're in our thirties... okay, you've won. He has told me that
these inventions take on chameleon-like attributes at sci-fi convention
settings; he's had to stay on the move amongst crowded exhibition
floors, lest someone lean against him thinking he's part of a display
booth. After several years in costume competitions, these creations
soon carved Dave an unusual and notable niche in the national sci-fi
con circuit (see video link). This isn't green face paint and glued-on Vulcan ears, or meticulous-to-the-thread recreations of Rutger Hauer's outfit in Blade Runner.
These obsessively detailed, home-spun creations have the markings of a
mutational spawn. While still rooted in the world of sci-fi fandom
culture, Dave's costumes seem to lean more towards the surreal
aesthetic of Leigh Bowery, or the Dada and Futurist theater costumes of
1920's Zurich. After all, why be a fan of the movie, when you can
actually be the movie? Dave recently asnswered some questions for me...

Me: When most people put on a costume, they feel empowered by the
concealment, and fall into becoming (or commenting on) whatever the
costumes represents. What do you become in these costumes?

Dave T. Smith: Over-heated. Actually, there's always a sense of
freedom that comes from anonymity. Being masked allows for more risks
and risque' conversation with complete strangers. Usually, there's a
lot of ice for me to overcome, but these costumes overtly display my
humor and creativity and provides the "street culture" (I define
'street culture' as pop-culture-lite, knowing the big sci-fi movies
that aren't too obscure - Star Wars works where Brazil
would not) a method of almost instant identification. It's fun to watch
people squint at me trying to figure it out, followed shortly by an
expression of pleasant surprise.

How did all this get started?

Actually, it began with drafting class in high school, which was in
preparation for architecture school. I grew to enjoy working with my
hands, plotting perspectives and building actual models, etc. Of
course, the business world had moved on to the computer by the time I
graduated, mostly with Computer Aided Drafting & Design. Like
anything on the computer, CADD is a virtual world - not quite real nor
tactile, but very malleable. Real world distances (full scale) are
employed but one's work is locked within the monitor. Then, the
hardware is not very portable, and it's hard for people to relate to
CADD work. While this pays the bills, it's not always satisfying. So it
hit me one year, to dust off my architectural modeling skills for
Halloween and go as the one Batman character no one else would think to
dress as... Gotham City. I spent an entire weekend hitting all the toy
aisles and comic book shops collecting miniature figures and vehicles
for the project then the next two weeks actually building it. When I
left home Halloween night (1994, I think) the street lights painted on
the black poncho were still wet.

And you just kept making them?

There were four built in this order: Gotham City, Battle of Endor
(Death Star 2), NYC Under Attack and The Land of Oz. I'm inspired by
high design and high concept in popular cinema... again, mostly to
appeal to the street culture.

"Gotham City" (click for larger)

Besides conventions and competitions, where else do you use these?

Should Halloween fall on a weekday, I've been known to arrive at the
office in costume. Also, bigger cities usually have a Halloween street
parade. I try to do something every year for Halloween. But, lately
I've been doing more standard character costumes; Doctor Octopus,
Men in Black, a kilted Jedi. I wore Doctor Octopus in San Francisco a
few years back, and it was quite popular. An exception to the newer
character costumes is the Solar System, which is made from a child's
mobile kit and other materials. As pictured, the Earth is actually a
Christmas gift I made for Mom one year; a standard off-the-shelf globe,
which I then painted for accurate geography with clouds from satellite
photos on the day Hong Kong was transferred back to China - so
literally, the costume is the sun is setting on the British Empire.

Any funny stories?

While wearing Gotham, I remember one guy commenting that he "really
liked my retaining walls," of all things to notice. Another looked at
me quite defiantly saying, "You can't do this!" "Too late," I replied,
"I already did." Also, one Halloween, as the Death Star, a friend of
mine was playing drums in a Celtic folk-rock band at Irish pub and I
arrived between songs. So he directed everyone's attention toward me. I
noticed the vocalist at the mic was dressed as Princess Leia so I
pointed back and told her that I had a prison cell with her name on it,
recalling the very first Star Wars movie. As Doctor Octopus, I like to wag a mechanical tentacle at guys saying "I'm a doctor. Turn your head and cough."

"Gotham City" detail (click for larger)

When did you decide to exhibit them at sci-fi conventions?

I used to attend a writer's crit group with published authors Teresa
Patterson, P. N. Elrod and Roxanne Longstreet Conrad, but missed a
session while constructing Gotham. A few days after it's debut, I
apologized to Teresa and, after telling her why, she encouraged me to
bring it to SoonerCon in Oklahoma City that very weekend. However, I
hadn't put much effort into repairing the costume. That Friday night, I
woked late, began early the next morning, then still had to drive the
3.5 hours to the con. So by the time I arrived, registered for a room,
the convention and the masquerade, there was barely enough time to eat,
unpack and get dressed. Fortunately, as a late addition, they put me in
back. That's when I saw all the production value contestants were
putting into their skits. I had nothing but the costume and thought I
had already lost. But the MC really played my entry up, "And lastly, we
have Dave Smith... aaaaaAAAAHHHHHZZZZZZ... GOTHAAAAMMM CITY!" All four
hundred people in the room just gasped at once. Then the laughter and
applause just swept across the room as I took the stage. Once up there,
I saw Teresa, Pat and Roxanne all sitting at the judge's table. I was
awarded Best In Show. Favoratism aside, I don't believe the audience
would have allowed for anything less given their reaction. A few years
later, I learned that the WorldCon was coming to San Antonio (August
1997) and I knew it would be a chance to get a similar reaction from an
audience of thousands.

What conventions have you attended and exhibited at?

SoonerCon in Oklahoma City, AggieCon at Texas A&M University (where I met your friend, Starlog
founder Kerry O'Quinn), numerous Austin, Houston and Dallas Comic Cons,
WorldCon 55, and the following Costume Con 16 in St. Louis, at the
behest of my Worldcon performers from Chicago. Once, in Dallas, I was
in Death Star 2, and David Prowse (who played Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy) was a guest, there to sell autographs and photos. I was honored when he wanted his photo taken with me instead.

What are some of the awards you've won?

Perhaps half a dozen Best-in-Shows at various sci-fi conventions and
bar Halloween contests. Gotham City debuted to a prize pack including
$50, a watch and a keg party at the awarding club. A year or so later,
it won me season tickets to a reparatory theatre. One time, British
Airways was awarding plane tickets to top five "Space Travelers" while
promoting the 20th anniversary of the Concord Fleet. So, I grabbed the
Death Star and headed down for the contest. There was a mic which
people (mostly wearing last-minute tin foil) could make their case
before the judges. So I had to improvise some excuse, "As you can see
I'm stuck in geosynchronous orbit five feet above the earth's surface,
and need the plane ride to boost me off of the ground and back toward a
galaxy far, far away." I think I came in third behind some green fuzzy
thing on four-foot stilts. Still, I got a trip to Scotland for my
efforts that day. The WorldCon masquerade judges awarded me "Most
Humorous Presentation" and "Special Recognition for Modeling and
Computer Work." Oh, and recently, Dr. Octopus won a Leia action figure
signed by Carrie Fisher.

What can you tell us about the show in the video (link below)?

Well, all my volunteers from home had failed to contact me in San
Antonio. During the last minute marathon to finish the NYC and Oz
costumes in my hotel room, I had to take time out to patrol the
dealer/exhibitor floor, approaching people at random and asking for
their help. Eventually, I saw a girl in belly-dancing garb and knew
she'd have a sympathetic ear. She gladly volunteered and introduced me
to three of her friends who were all ready to participate as well,
especially after I offered to buy them all dinner prior to the show.
Thanks to the backlog, we made it to my tech rehearsal that afternoon,
then met for dinner as promised the next day. Then we gathered all the
costumes and formed the most unlikely of parades through the hotel and
across a brutally hot street (110 degrees) to the convention center.
Hours later, the show finally began and I was thrilled and nervous when
my music selection finally started. The monitors weren't set up
properly so two of my crew missed their cues. If I hadn't needed to
enter from the opposite side of the stage, I would've been able to push
them out from behind the curtains. Still, I wasn't sure I was
connecting with the audience until Godzilla made her appearance and
started knocking down all my cities. The audience started screaming
with laughter and I remember saying aloud, "It's worrr-kiiiiing." But
that wasn't anything compared to the howls that hit when I took the
stage as the Death Star and shot Godzilla with my super-laser. I still
get a little light-headed when playing the video; thousands of people
laughing at me... and in a good way.

What do you think of the stereotype of attendees at science
fiction/comic book conventions being social misfits with high I.Q.s who
spend all their time obsessed with sci-fi/fantasy pop culture creations?

Well by definition, that's virtually everyone who attends these
conventions, at least while they're attending. But realistically only a
small fraction are like that continuously... at least that's what I
tell myself while standing in line to pay for admission.

On the other hand, from films and news coverage that I've seen,
sci-fi/fantasy conventions seem to be really massive community
experiences, there seems to be a lot of bonding, and people seem very
friendly and happy. Is this true?

Yes. Even still, I'm on the lunatic fringe of one such fandom
community, House Pegasus. They're a loose association of authors and
artists, both pro and amateur. I believe they still gather most every
Saturday night but I'm lucky if I make the annual Twelfth Night (after)
Christmas Party. So the local conventions allow us all to reconnect
beyond the occasional phone call. I also recognize the same thing
happening with other groups at the conventions.

"The Land of Oz" (click for larger)

The costume competitions at conventions sound like they could be
pretty intense. Can competition ever become too competitive, or
cut-throat?

Not at all. Everyone is very respectful of each other and interested in each other's work.

Have there been any disasters while wearing them?

A few close calls, scraped door jambs and bumped signage, but
nothing of consequence. Oh, once a dog became very threatening toward
Gotham but seemed delighted when I removed the mask to show that I was
indeed human.

Do any of the costumes have moving or mechanical parts?

Just simple pivots. Gotham has a cat head that spins atop Shreck's
Department Store (ref. Batman Returns); the Death Star has a door knob
mounted to the top of the interior bike helmet allowing me to turn my
head while the construction remains stationary on my shoulders. And NYC
has spinning airplanes around the Empire State Building mask...
attacking King Kong, of course.

Do they take a long time to make? Is it expensive?

It varies. Gotham only took two weeks to assemble, only because I
started two weeks before Halloween. I've been adding to it as the
subsequent movies were released. I know I spent more on the toy figures
and vehicles that inhabit the city than on the buildings themselves.
Death Star 2 took two weeks to draw in CADD then two months to cut out
and assemble. I spent probably $300 on the toy fleets attached to the
sleeves... making me a "fully armed and operational battle station."
Turns out, it's twice as heavy as I had calculated, 35lbs, most of
which is on my chest; the backpack frame in back really only provides
balance. I'd like to take it to one of the annual Redbull contests and
retire it in a blaze of glory, light it on fire then detach myself and
abandon it underwater. I would then rebuild it out of a light-weight Hoberman Sphere, keeping the fleet-shirt in tact, of course.

Do you ever get stopped in your tracks by things at a hardware
store or toy store and think... "Oh that would make the perfect
so-and-so for my so-and-so costume?"

All the time. Much of my best work comes from found items, funnels,
tennis balls, circuit boards, measuring spoons, clock parts, etc. The
Riddler's island is probably the best example of this.

Is it still a hobby?

It once was... before the colossal time waster that is a home
internet connection (witness, your readers reading all this.) Also, if
I'm not at home by 8pm, I'll go into college-party mode and stay up
until 2 or 3am, easy (as sung by The The; 'I've got too much
energy, to switch off my mind, But not enough, to get organized...')
Then, work will be zombie-hell for the remainder of the week. So home
by 8 but I'm not ready to sleep, then on with the television but I just
can't sit there only watching, so I find creative things to do with my
hands during the evening. Last December, I completed a tribute to 2010; a LEGO model of both the Discovery and Leonov.

"Solar System" (click for larger)Have you ever run into anyone else that does things like this?

Not quite. In college, there was talk of architecture students
attending the annual Beuz Arts Ball dressed in Greek column costumes or
as a single building. Then, there's a famous cabaret in San Francisco
with elaborate architectural headpieces. One year at SoonerCon, I
remember a young father wearing an Empire State Building comprised of a
pointed hat, large slabs of foam with painted vertical stripes and
holding his infant son in a gorilla costume.

Okay, for argument's sake, let's fantasize a bit: let's say
you're offered the chance at eternal life. However, the catch is that
you must live forever in the reality of a science fiction film or
story, say Star Wars or whatever. Would you say yes, and if so, what film or story?

Unless it were some truly utopian scenario, like Oz without the
witches or a future where fusion worked, desaliniation was cheap and
every possible medical problem could be easily recognized and cured,
probably not. Realistically, I'd just be trading one set of problems
for another. I mean, given the choice of living in relative freedom or
under the brutal tyranny of a galactic empire, I'll choose the here and
now. Besides, eternal life would be hell without eternal youth. Would
Baum allow vampires in Oz? I think by extension of witches that he
would, but then I'd be destroying the very utopia I sought to achieve.
What kind of Mobius-loop question is that anyway?

Again, for argument's sake: if you were going to rob a bank with one of these costumes, which would it be?

Yow, I don't know. Those that are light enough to allow for a quick
get-away are facially too revealing. With 85 layers (radius) of
alternating chip and cardboard, Death Star 2 might be bullet proof from
certain angles though.

If you were the leader of a street gang in The Warriors, and
these costumes were your gang's costumes... what would the name of your
gang be, and which costume would you wear as their leader?

The Flammables. I'd probably dress as Gotham so as to have some measure of urban camouflage. I worked the movie opening of Batman Forever in Dallas, and some patrons didn't even recognize me as a living object at first.

If you could have any one superpower, what would it be?

Nudist flight... like in Thanks and So Long For All The Fish by Doug Adams.

If you made a costume from a scene in your own real life... what would that costume look like?

First off, I'd have to leave my face exposed, or make a Dave mask,
but I'd have various components representing an artist's studio worn
about my body, drafting board, easel, supply cart, pencil/brush holder,
one helluva messy desk. Then I'd have multiple arms growing from around
my chest, each one doing something different; typing on a laptop,
drawing with CADD on a desktop, sculpting a miniature Michelangelo's
David from LEGO, painting, sketching, holding a portable phone, holding
a beer (probably my dad's homebrew), etc.

If you could do a costume of any kind from a film that WASN'T
sci-fi, fantasy, super-action or horror - you know just a film about
regular people or whatever, what would it be and why?

Hmmm. I don't know if I've actually seen any movies about regular people, except for maybe The Queen and one can hardly consider royalty "normal." Perhaps I'd choose Waiting For Guffman.
The right hand/arm could hold the town square while the mask would be
the stage... probably with the little fake alien singing and the torso
would be all the rows of theatre seats filled with diminishing scales
of action figures to create false perspective. Then just to make a
point, the left hand would hold a recreation of the pathetic empty shop
at the end where the protagonist (Christopher Guest) was trying to sell
a Remains of the Day lunch box "to make the kids happy."

Let's say you were funded $1 million to develop a costume like
this with no limits. What would you do? (you have to spend the money on
a costume).

First, I'd hire myself as a design/construction consultant ($5K an
hour should do it) then start the planning stages in CADD. I'd
construct a detailed costume based on Aliens; you know, Syd
Mead versus H. R. Gieger. Heck, I might even hire the both of them as
consultants too, just for the privilege of working with them. While I'm
at it, let's bring Stan Winston on board to build it for me. The costume
would represent the whole movie with Gateway Station in one hand, the
Sulaco model (available via Hobby-Link Japan) traveling through space
along the same arm, the drop ship hanging from a black string. Then a
cut-away of the terra-form base would comprise the sandwich board with
the power plant for a mask. It could even be made to "explode" with
hinged sides. Then, in the other hand, the Sulaco landing bay for the
showdown between Ripley and the Alien Queen, maybe with a spring loaded
airlock for the Queen to drop through. Of course, there would be plenty
of alien figures, lights and perhaps an iPod continuously playing the
soundtrack. Then, whatever money is left would go to 20th Century Fox
for the rights to play the soundtrack in public. By the time the
lawyers are done with it, I'm sure that alone could soak up a cool mil.

Any movie scene/set costume ideas you had that never came into being?

Plenty:
- Blade Runner, with the big floating blimp as a
mask. I bought a foot-long Spinner model with Ford and Olmos figures
sculpted into the seats for this purpose.
- Times Square (basically a different mask for NYC, with a little ball
that drops to wear for New Years Eve). Also, I wanted to adapt a large
golf umbrella into one of the saucers from ID4.
- Dealy Plaza during the Kennedy Assassination. After visiting the
Sixth Floor Museum, I saw where the School Book Depository would make
the perfect mask, Love Field would be in one hand and the Texas Movie
Theater would be in the other.
- Also, I've just remembered that I need to add sky above the Emerald
City mask, with "Surrender Dorothy" written in black airbrush.

What are some of the other things you do?

Write, watercolors, LEGO (also here), HTML code, 3D CADD modeling, Photoshop, handcrafting film action figures, my ongoing Caption This!
site - whatever keeps my fingers busy and allows for the expression of
ideas. Currently, I'm focused on adapting my 90's attempt at a sci-fi
saga into a graphic novel
with an illustrator friend of mine. We also collaborated on a parody
comic book pitting Batman (Batguy actually, to avoid legal issues)
versus Joel Schumacher as a Bat-villain named The Franchise Killer
(a fandom term for his killing Warner Brother's franchise). Thus,
Batman was not the real target but it became a vehicle for social
commentary. In one scene, after Joel has burned nipples into the
Batguy's breastplate, Batguy is scolding him, "You've forgotten that
we're trying to market to kids here." At the same time, Batguy is
shaking a can of beer (branded Brew Swain) to spray as a distraction,
but on the side of the can, there's Joe Camel with a frosty mug in his
hand. For the 2008 election, I'd like to publish, if only on the web,
Batguy verses Washington. Basically, the White House is floating up the
Eastern seaboard, literally up for grabs and four titans emerge to
chase it down: Elephemme, Donkey-OT, Ramzees (Lib) and the Cagey-Bee
(representing the communist party in America.) Lately, I've often
thought about making a deconstructivist film whereby I'd splice
together old movies and/or their remakes with footage and music from
other sources as appropriate from the dialogue... perhaps in an attempt
to recreate (or sometimes twist) the writer's original vision. I think Lord of the Flies
would make a good project, given the references in U2's early albums.
Of course this would blatantly violate many copyrights, but I believe
deconstruction is all about being blatant (by the way, anyone care to
donate a working video toaster?)

EXTRA:
Take a peek at some of Dave's drawings for the costumes: The Batcave (1, 2), Death Star 2 (1), Gotham City (1, 2), JFK Assassination (1).
As well as some CADD designs: Death Star 2 (1, 2) NYC (1), Oz (1).

Comments

I think what's being implied by some of the posts above is that WFMU should or does have a canon and certain things are in and certain things aren't, permanently. I think the very ideas of permanence and canonicity are antithetical to what WFMU is supposed to be and a state of perpetual flux is more desirable.
I think a costume representing the sun setting on the British Empire says more about the cultural feedback loop we're all experiencing/trying to escape from here in the new century. There are absolute limits to the expansion of an economy predicated upon the maximization of profit. Who's outide of it? The Ebu Gogo maybe? Sasquatch? Where would Alan Lomax go with his tape machine in 2007?I think the idea of dressing as an event rather than a personage embraces the reality of the cultural feedback loop and is a move in the direction of a set of relations that none of us, myself included have experienced.

"I think the idea of dressing as an event rather than a personage embraces the reality of the cultural feedback loop and is a move in the direction of a set of relations that none of us, myself included have experienced"

Please. Come on. Is there some sort of shared hallucination going on here that nobody told me about? What exactly is a "cultural feedback loop"? Are you talking about the Oprah Winfrey Show??

If Alan Lomax were alive today hopefully he'd run for the hills, like all of us should. Better to hide in the hills from unbalanced people "dressed as events" then to be swallowed alive by the cultural feedback loop.

Somehow I don't feel a flight or flight response when I look at someone in an elaborate and novel movie inspired costume. I don't think you do either. Alan Lomax already ran for the hills, with a tape machine decades ago. Thos same hills are strip mines and condos now. The fact of a closed set of cultural influences seems to run parallel with the material reality of no new pools of labor to introduce industrial work to. Isn't it the first or more likely the second generation after families have graduated from tennant farming that augments traditional folk music into things like jazz and Rock and Roll?
After which the new industrial classes realize that while it may be abetter deal than working the fieds from sun to sun that it's still somehow less than ideal. It's that initial introduction to industrial work where owners can expect to compensate folks the least. Well the world economy is running out of populations to introduce to industrial work. When mode of economic production approaches the absolute limits of it's expansion that is also reflected in cultural output. This is illustrated by the Boston song that became the Pixies song that became the Nirvana song etc.

The "Cultural Feedback loop" I'm talking about is similarly illustrated by the name of this blog, adapted from presumably Beware of the Blob! Similarly with the movie Grindhouse or goofy low budget cop movies from the 80's or peoples preocupation with the culture of the ever more recent past generally.
Hello!!!

a friend of mine sent me the link to this page, the 'battle of endor' costume is sheer GENIUS!!!!

anyways, thought you might like to take a look at the site we made for our halloween party in denmark last year: the invite was an eyeball in bag that we gave to everyone, and we made all the props and costumes over about six weeks. Now my buzz costume has had a recent revamp this year (new wings/plaster body/glow-in-the-dark green etc) but that's after, so no photos...

Rob-
Thanks to you and others for the vote of brilliance there.
Your party invite there reminds me of a Punk/Halloween party Mark (the very same blog-poster above) and I threw in high school. We all wore trashbags after the Plasmatics if I remember correctly. For refreshment we made an absolutely hideous copper green cake with dirty pink icing. It was all homemade and we didn't have powdered sugar on hand and used regular, making the icing very gritty. Also, there was also one of those styrofoam wig head stands with multi-colored toothpics stuck in at odd angles with little sausage and cheese slices. But what caused me to laugh as hard as I think I ever have was a Cupey doll partially submerged in a pool of red Jello. The doll was boyant and had to be partially filled with the warm Jello mixture to keep it from floating while the gelatine set; there was an opening at the doll's crotch where this occured. During the party, Mark's friend William reached right in and pulled the doll from the Jello and started squeezing and licking the blood-like semi-fluid from the dolls crotch. It was the single most disturbing and outrageously funny moment of my young life up until that point.
Anyway, I hope you check back in to read this soon. Okay. See ya.

I am a great fan of Star Wars Costumes and I have a vast collection of star wars costumes. I give a round of applause to Dave Smith for his fetish art in his mastery over the elements for shaping costumes in different designs. I like Death Star 2 costume; it looks like a space ship. http://mystarwarscostume.com/